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This was the first Do Lecture from 2010 that I have seen, and what an amazing speech. Maggie Doyne was a high school leaver who went on her gap year and instead of drinking it up in Australia she turned to poorer countries, like India and Nepal (one of my favourite countries). Concerned with the conditions of some of the children she saw, with just $5000, at the age of 23 she has set up her own school for orphaned children at Kopila Valley, Surkhet in Nepal. She has taken children away from child labour to give them a deserved chance at education.

She has since started her foundation called BlinkNow Foundation to share her ideas with other young people. Maggie won the prestigious Do Something award in America for all that she has done so far.

Rolf Potts is the Author of the book Vagabonding and is a great promoter of the idea of travelling better rather than more. This week he is starting a trip around the world using NO baggage. Think you travel light with that 35 litre back pack? Rolf Potts takes this to a new level of travel lightly.

Rolf is doing this to “field-test for a more philosophical idea — that what we experience in life is more important than what we bring with us.” By having no bag it means he cannot use his cameraman to carry things for him, no “man bags”, and no borrowing items from his cameraman.

Rolf Potts runs a successful blog and being a writer he needs internet access across the globe while doing this, so he is using an iPhone and a small foldable bluetooth keyboard to help solve the laptop problem. With some clever apps he can scan documents, and have airline tickets on hand without having to carry them. His key travel item though, is his amazing jacket. A special travel jacket called ScotteVest it is ultra light weight, sleeves can come off and the whole jacket even folds into itself for carrying. However the key is its massive amount of discreet pockets. They are designed for multiple items of different sizes and dont bulk like most jackets. Surely a must for any traveller.

More Information on the ScotteVest Tropical Jacket

For more information about Rolf Potts and his way of thinking, and what he has done, check out his Do Lecture below:

Rolf Potts has reported from more than fifty countries for the likes of National Geographic Traveler, the New York Times
Magazine, Slate.com, Conde Nast Traveler, Outside, The Believer, The Guardian (U.K.), National Public Radio, and the Travel Channel.

For me, Tim Ferriss, author of Four Hour Work Week, is arguably the man who set me off with wanting to do things, and making you realise anything is possible. In his book, the idea of Dreamlining symbolises this perfectly. A dreamline is setting a “dream” and then breaking it down into steps to make it reality. Whether its driving a Ferrari, or holding a conversation in Chinese with a local. While no doubt Tim is now very successful, he still keeps his ideas of living well and spending time on things he wants to do.

Tim’s book, Four Hour Work Week, is in my eyes essential reading. Its a great non-fiction book. Get it now, it will change your life if you follow!

I first came across Alastair Humphreys from stumbling across the Do Lectures. The Do Lectures are basically a load of amazing people talking about great things they have done and what inspired them to do as such. This one by Alastair, who biked around the world for 4 years. He has also done many great, what he calls, “microadventures” like walking around the M25, and more recently Sea kayaking in Pembrokeshire. We both have met him, and he is a great guy. He has also completed the marathon des sables which my friend Will and his twin Jim are doing in 2012. I really like his ideas on taking a picture everyday, as it means you did something that was worth remembering. Also the idea of “when was the last time you did something new”.

Alastair has raced a yacht across the Atlantic Ocean and canoed 500 miles down the Yukon River as well as walking the length of the holy Kaveri river in India.

Alastair has published three books, with one more due by the end of 2009. (He has also written chapters for Lonely Planet’s ‘Flightless’ anthology, the Adventure Cycling Handbook, Stanorama and The Traveller’s Handbook. He ran the Marathon des Sables, finishing as one of the ten fastest Brits despite breaking his foot during the race. To fight off the wanderlust Alastair managed a sub-3-hour marathon, had a miserable time during the Original Mountain Marathon, the Devizes to Westminster 120-mile canoe marathon and another one during Tough Guy. Travelling round the World Cup in a camper van was much more fun.

After spending a year teaching 10-year-old boys in a school’s Special Needs department, Alastair is now training for the Bob Graham Round and preparing for SOUTH, the first unsupported return journey to the South Pole and the longest unsupported polar journey in history. In February 2009 he rowed to France with Major Phil Packer, a soldier paralysed in Iraq, as part of Phil’s attempt to raise £1million for Help for Heroes.